But around 4 p.m. the work came to an abrupt halt. There was word a tornado watch had been issued and police immediately began evacuating the area.

“I hear we’re under another tornado warning and they won’t let me to go get my roommate,” said a panicked Deana Kroner as she stood outside the police barricade. “I’ve got his car and he’s in there. We just went through this tornado, and I don’t want to leave him in there!”

That’s the sort of fear and panic the words tornado watch bring in Granbury.

Roads were clogged with homowners’ and relief workers’ vehicles when Rancho Brazos is evacuated.

Just the threat of bad weather spurs the hasty retreat.

“When the police came in and said we need to evacuate I got goosebumps,” said Andy Simon who helps run the American Legion which borders the neighborhood and served as a shelter immediately after the tornado. “We said, ‘That’s it! we’re out of here!'”

Kroner was escorted in to find her roommate.

It’s no wonder they’re on edge, though.

Their memories of the storm’s devastation are very fresh and very raw.

“We triaged probably 30 to 40 people with bad, very bad wounds head wounds, all those kinds of things,” Simon said.